Panaji bye-poll campaign ends

The campaigning for the Panaji Assembly seat bye-election came to an end this evening.

The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who took up assignment as Union Defence Minister.

"The preparations for the Panaji bye-election are in the final stage. All the candidates have been asked to stop their campaigning this evening," Joint Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Navti told reporters here.

The polling for the constituency, having 22,057 voters of whom majority are women (11,335), will be held on February 13 across 30 booths.

Three complaints of violation of code of conduct were reported during the campaigning which were disposed of, Navti said.

BJP has fielded Siddharth Kuncolienkar, while Surendra Furtado is the Congress nominee for the bypoll. Two independents - Samir Kelekar and Sadanand Vaigankar - are also in the fray.

The constituency housing Goa's capital city has no sensitive or hyper-sensitive polling booth.

Each polling station will have two policemen for security. A company of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has also arrived in Goa for patrolling along with the state police.

During the 2012 state Assembly elections, the constituency had witnessed 77.13 per cent voting, giving a winning edge to Parrikar.

Navti said that the voter turnout is expected to increase during the bye-election as enough awareness has been created about the duty to vote.